Dispatches: An African Dalí

A Peace Corps volunteer discovers a talented self-taught surrealist in a Senegalese village.

Leita Kaldi
Kobongoye, Senegal | May 22, 2007

I found Omar in the smallest, most miserable hut in Kobongoye, a Senegalese village nestled in the sand among ancient baobabs, in walking distance of the Atlantic Ocean. Kobongoye was a last bastion of resistance against Islam, and the Sérère people are closer to pangol animism than anywhere else in the country. They say their Muslim prayers daily, but at night they invoke spirits among the baobabs, where dead griots lie hidden in the branches....

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Returned Peace Corps volunteer Leita Kaldi (Senegal 1993-96) served as Administrator of Hospital Albert Schweitzer in Haiti until her retirement in 2002.